Latest / The Rookie On Fire / Aaron Lee | Pay to Play at Bigger Levels
Transcript
- Longform (1): People that do big things, they're optimistically delusional. He drew this number and he circled it and he's like, see that's why rep card will never work. And I sat there looking at that and my brain was like, you don't know what you're talking about. And so I'll tell you, Harvard did a study, it's my favorite study. They they studied the top executives, the top VPs of companies, the top earners. There was one thing they found. One thing. Hey, what's up guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Rookie on Fire here, hosted by Brad Mortensen. And we've got one of my favorite guests so far, a friend and honestly someone I look up to, an Aaron Lee. We met four or five years ago and just been good friends ever since. So, Aaron, welcome to the show, man. Glad to have you. Hey, glad to be here. I'll tell you this, Brad. I've always been the biggest fan of rep card, and I will tell you when I first logged into the tool, that was years ago. I worked at Vivin's Smart Home, shout out to Viven. And you are working on that account and you know, I was a big fan and we helped it get into those walls. So it is so cool to see where you are, where rep card is now, and truly, truly, best tool out there. I love to see what you do. Dude, yeah, and just a quick thanks before I forget, you were probably the biggest influence on us breaking out of the rep card early days and getting into where we're at today, 'cause you pushed me to build some tech that you needed for your business. And there was kinda just some roadblocks in the way and I won't get into what they were, but you were like, No, Brad, bet on yourself this and just push me over that edge and it w it just it's what I needed, dude. So I I'll forever will be grateful for you for that, for seeing in me and and seeing my potential and pushing me to the point where we broke through and and things have been just snowballing ever since and and gotta give credit where credit's due. So appreciate you. I I love man. I remember those combos, Brad. I remember them so well. Because you always had it. And you know, I'll tell you business owners and you know, this is probably heavy door to door that listen to it. that honestly is how life works. Like you have to ble you know, I I'll say two things if I can here. Yep. One of my one of my favorite analogies, it's one of my favorite analogies. So I I knocked doors in four for four years in Kentucky and they have this religion out there. It's called the Kentucky Derby. And when people go to the Kentucky Derby, Brad, they show up for the Kentucky Derby. If you knock on someone's door in Kentucky during the Kentucky Derby, they'll shoot you. it is it is not cool. Everyone watches it. But when you go to these races, one of my favorite things are they spend millions of dollars on these horses. these are prized horses. The thing that they make sure is perfect is the blinders that are on the horses. Because those blinders, in order to be an elite racer, The horse cannot see anything but what's in front of him. If that horse sees to the right and that horse sees to the left, they get spooked and they slow down. And those races are one by inches. And it is how big those blinders are. And I'll say one of my favorite sayings are business owners, people that do big things, they're they're optimistically delusional. that's what they are. They don't see the the crap. They just say, I don't know how, I don't know when I'm just gonna get there. And so dude you had that. That's why that combo existed. You had that and it's just cool to see where it is. Yeah, dude, that that is such a good analogy and yeah, you you have to like believe it more than just the outside chaos and you almost shouldn't do every guy that's done something big, there's a story behind it where they should have gave up, they sh didn't make sense. They were you know, I I had somebody come into my whiteboard one time, we were we were talking, got he got on the whiteboard and How big is the door-to-door market? And this and that. And he drew this number and he circled it and he's see, that's why rep card will never work. Because it's just, it's not, there's not a big enough market. It d it doesn't make sense. And I sat there looking at that, and my brain was like, You don't know what you're talking about. And he had all the reasons, he had the numbers. It made sense what he was saying from a scientific standpoint or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. But my brain was like, get out of my way. There you go. So Yeah, the blinders were on big time. So let's jump in here. we always start by just I want to hear you're Aaron Lee, you're eighteen years old, or you're young. I don't know what age you got into to sales. Yeah. You know, Tell me how that went. How did you who was the guy that recruited you? What did they say? What were the tactics? Was it you know, like how did get into sales? Yeah, and I'll make this story, you know, high level and quick, but I'll tell you It this started when I was a kid and I had a very unfair experience that made me have optimistic delusion for sure. When I was six years old, my parents had a garden, I grew up in a garden, and they had pumpkins, and I went and picked those pumpkins, I put it in a wagon, and I went door to door selling my parents pumpkins. And when I did that, because I was six, I had a hundred percent close rate. Nobody said no to me. So I learned this thing, I'm like, my gosh. What is door to door? So I, I I've been hooked ever since. I had an a lawn aeration business, I sold so much stuff door to door. I went on a two year LDS mission. And then when I got back, my mission companion said, Hey, you should come out and sell for Vivin's Smart Home. You should knock doors. Now, when I was a missionary, LDS mission, went on that mission, that's where I got most of my, converts is knocking doors. I just that is what I've done from a young age. And I love it, the hard work, the grind, the persuasion. If you can get good at knocking a door and holding your tone and holding your pace, there is nothing you can't conquer, period. And so when I got into it, my buddy recruited me. Not a great recruiting pitch. He just said show show up to the summer. And I did. When I showed up day one, I my buddy was not there. So who who was this buddy? What's his name? Yeah, so I love him. He's the man. People who know him, he's a he's a man of very little words. Brady Frank. Brady Frank. Trevor Frank. The OG at Vivent, still at Vivent. It's his younger brother. And I started the mission with him. And he introduced me to door to door at Vivent and I and I. What was his pitch like? I want to hear, he just said show up and you showed up, or did you have conversations like Dude? So I was still on my mission. That's what happened. I was still on my mission and he's like, dude, I got I I'm going out on the summer sales thing. Here's the money you can make. You should do it, 'cause he knew who I was on the mission from knocking doors. So I came home off my mission. I was home for two weeks. Two weeks and I left for my summer. So I was barely home when I went out. Now when I showed up, he was still finishing school and he was not there. And so my first day I went with my manager and I'm grateful for my manager. I'll tell you that. he did teach me a lot, but I get passionate about this topic because if you're gonna be a leader, speed of the leader, speed of the business. And I will tell you the low level leaders that say you cannot force a water or you can't force a horse to water and force him to drink. That is low level leadership in my opinion. When I when I went on my first day of sales, I'm I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this. My manager went and knocked doors with me, and he did not make a sell. And then he said, Hey, you've seen enough, right? You got it, right? And then I went out and knocked doors on my own and I had to figure it out on my own. That was not a good experience, dude. Not a good experience. Yeah. I didn't sell day one, obviously, because I had horrible training. Day two I'll never forget it. I made my first sale and the technician showed up and he said, Hey, what are we installing? This was home security. And I was like, dude, I don't know. Thank goodness for the technician. He helped me fill out all the paperwork and and make that first sell. So the only reason I tell that story, that's how I got into it. It changed my life, like door to door, literally changed my life. If I did not say yes and I did not do that door to door time, I I I was at Vivem for fifteen years. I met my wife through door to door. I've now met my business partners that I run businesses with through door to door. I've made millions of dollars through door to door to give me the life I have now. door to door changed my life, dude, taught me everything. So I'm glad I said yes, but that was my journey. That's how I started. Dude, that's wow. So easy. That's so cool that he you just were like, Yeah, cool, I'm in. Two weeks though is is really uncommon to come home. A lot of guys would justify Dude, let me I'll do it next summer. I I've been gone for two years. I want to hang out with my family, and it's like dude, there let's go. There's no no time to wait. So shout out to you for doing that. Let's let's jump into some rapid fire questions here and then we'll we'll jump into the rookie year. Would you rather close a deal over a two hour lunch or over text? Over a two hour lunch. I mean my name in the game was referrals, so I want to make the connection. Let's go. Love it. Would you rather have a full pipeline or a full head of hair? Ooh. Full pipeline. I've actually grown to love the bald head. Okay. I maybe you headed your way soon. I don't know. We'll see what's going on under these these hats I wear. Okay, I've just got one more for you. would you rather relive your rookie year or would you re w or would you rather relive the last twelve months? Ooh, man, that's This is a rapid fire, I have to answer one or the other quickly, right? Yeah. Yeah. man, I would probably say my last twelve months. But c do can I answer that? Yeah, send it. It's the last one. I yeah, I mean, yeah, I have four kids. I want to relive those moments for the rest of my life. But that rookie year is what taught me so much of what I am today. But my kids, ma'am, they mean everything to me. If I can relive that last year over and over, that's what I do. Yeah, you're gonna make me cry if we keep talking about that. So let's let's let's jump in. So so again, the Rookie on Fire podcast is about the your your rookie year. So yeah you get recruited by your buddy, Mr. Frank, and you go out, he's not even there, and that year happens, that summer, that year happens. Like tell me if you could go back. You're writing a a letter to your son or the the young Aaron Lee, and you're going, Hey, tomorrow's gonna be your first day Knocking door. what is that let what are you saying? What are the do's and the the quick don'ts that yeah you would tell Aaron to do or to to not do that would make the rookie year even better? For sure. No, dude, I love that question. I'll tell you how you do anything is how you do everything, period. And if I can go back and give myself advice, it'd be in two ways. Number one, you gotta find the best rep, the best producer in that office. And I think sometimes these rookies If they have found success somewhere else or they think it's nonchalant, it's whatever, I'm there for the experience, they don't go maximize it. And then the summer's over before they know it, or their year's over before they know it, and they wasted their time. And I will tell you, if I could go back, I did do that. My first year, I worked hard, I worked really hard. I sold 150 accounts my first summer in three months, but I did not go apply myself at the rate I wish I did. And so my challenge to a rookie, go find the best rep in your office, or if they're not in your office, if someone's better, You have to pay to go get sometimes the best type of coaching. And I'll tell you if I can fast forward a couple years. The moment I wanted to sell over four hundred accounts in a year, I wanted to break it. I had never done it. I remember I called Sam Taggart. shout out to Sam Taggart. I asked him to shadow him. And I'll tell you, do you know what he was used to on every phone call when someone made that call? No one wanted to pay him. They wanted it for free. So guess how he treated me in that call? I called Sam and said, Sam, I want to shadow you. And he's like, Yeah, yeah, for sure. Maybe sometime. I'm like, No, no, Sam, I want to pay you to shadow you. And he's like, Huh? What? And I'll tell you, I did, and I learned how to do what that guy did. No one did it better. He is so freaking good. And then I went and broke over four hundred the next year. And so that's my advice is your first year. Let's go. That is so fire. Yeah, you can't wait for the free advice. people watch these YouTube videos and they're like, I got it. You gotta pay to go play at bigger levels. And so go follow the mentor, go find the mentor. I would tell you to go pay to get the the coaching. That's my advice. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome that you reached out to Sam and you were willing to pay and you were willing to just lean into the ad the advice. If you're a rookie on on this call or rookie and you're listening to podcast, or even if you're two or three years in and you're trying to break through, like for me it was year six. And in Door to Door, a lot of times the mentors that you want to be around are your leaders. If you're at the right company or whatever, like I love Door to Door because it has baked in mentorship. It can also be bad mentorship. But yeah, in my case, I had been in Door to Door for six years and I got connected with the Seaver brothers over at Bulwark. Maybe it was nine years in. Anyways, it was a long time. And dude, I had never had I was always really consistent, but I never had these big days and he got me to to believe and to think a different way. And I started hitting these biggest days, biggest weeks, biggest months, we're all at bulwark selling pest control. And it was just a breakthrough. And so fortunately, I mean, or whatever, like it was baked into the company. He was the one of the owners. but sometimes it's not and you gotta go pay. Maybe it's the right company, but maybe the right whatever. So That's awesome. Anything else you would you would do differently as far as like that you maybe you didn't do and you're like, I saw other people doing this and I should have or you you realized years later. Yeah, so the the last piece of advice, there's twofold to this. So number one, you gotta pay to get the training. You have to you have to get your perspective to be bigger. And so the second one is when you go do those things, I'll tell you it's not all what I saw when I paid for the mentorship and I paid the price to get to the right room. It was more of I saw it and I'm like, my gosh, I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. And so I'll tell you, Harvard did it a study. It's my favorite study. They went and they they studied the top executives, the top VPs of companies, the top earners, and they said, What is consistent across the board? We want to find what is consistent. Do they work out? Do they wake up early? Do they have do they have good marriages? Are they married? Not married. What is the secret? Like we want a playbook. This is what creates elite people. And they found Nothing that was consistent. Some were overweight, some were some were skinny, right? Some liked mountain biking, some hated it, right? There was no consistency. There was one thing they found, one thing. And that one thing is all these elite people lived in a paradox. In that paradox, they knew they were the best person in the room. They didn't know when, they didn't know how, but they were going to figure it out and dominate the person to the neck to the right of them. And they had that confidence. The paradox they lived in though. They didn't think they were enough. They didn't think they had the talent. They didn't think they were gonna do it. They thought they were gonna lose it all tomorrow. And so they had this stupid work ethic because they always thought they weren't good enough. And that's the one thing they found consistent in the most elite people. This was a study by Harvard. It's a it's an amazing study. Go look it up. So the reason I highlight that, the second piece in my mind is you gotta think bigger. Like I'm telling you, whatever the record is. Michael Phelps says this his quote. I love it. He's like records are meant to be broken. Right? the Roger Bannisser effect. When when he broke the the four minute mile, running a mile under four minutes, no one had done it in years. The moment he did it, in the next ten years, high school students were doing it because it was all mentality. So I would say I would say think bigger. And in order to think bigger, you gotta go get in the bigger rooms. And so if you're a rookie, go Think bigger and go get in the right rooms. Go to your leader, go to the best rep and just go watch, go learn. Don't lax a daisical go through that first year and say I'll get it next year. That I I wish I would have had more of that tenacity. Now married fifteen years, four kids. Man, life was easy back then. Life was easy. it was so easy. I wish I I wish I went bigger, harder, stronger when I was younger. Dude, that is so fire. Like If you're listening to this, I'm sure you're taking notes and you're like, dude, yes, how do I do that? There's got to be a big dog in your company, an owner that's got just a you know, just something to learn from. Like, go find that person if you're listening, go identify that person and go get around that campfire. So Aaron, as we wrap up here, obviously door-to-door opens up so many doors. So I'd love to hear What are you doing these days? Are you still in door to door? Are you not? I know, but I want you to share a minute or two of what you're up to these days, and then we'll wrap up. Yeah, there's a saying in door to door, knock doors to buy doors. And I'll tell you over the last 15 years of my door-to-door career, you now heard it in this podcast, door to door changed my life. I am so glad I did door to door. Anyone that is thinking about quitting, my one advice is don't. Like, don't, it's hard for a reason. It is the greatest trade, and I made millions. From it. I did door to door for twenty years. And in that door to door time I did knock doors to buy doors. I bought a lot of doors. And so now today I get to sit in a seat w running a company with my brother. It's called Wealth Outside Wall Street. I'm the CEO of that company and I will tell you what we do. my gosh, I wish I had it when I first started knocking doors. We help people retire off Wall Street. We help them get into properly structured single family home purchases. We help them get into syndication deals the right way. All backed by a plan, not shiny toy syndrome, like a lot of these young door to door people are. They look at a deal and they go run at it with no plan, no not nothing, you know, is with an outcome. We help them with taxes, all that stuff. So we have a huge community of door to door people now in our community because they know how important it is. You make so much money knocking doors. It is the most elite profession. And if you can just be smart with it, when you're my age, now forty Your life is so different with kids, ooh, just be smart with it. So that's what I do now. I help people wake up, rise up, and live free. And what that means living free, they have the power of choice. they they knock enough doors to go buy enough doors where they can choose to do whatever they want to do, still knock doors, don't knock doors, go do what they want, 'cause they have enough money paying them every month. Dude. That sounds amazing. And I need to get into that. I think there's so many people that need to get into that. The young Brad needs to get into that. so wealth outside of Wall Street. Do you guys call it WoW? yeah, the the abbreviation's wow, that's right. I mean dude, it's the wow fac that's cool. so where can they find you? Where can they find that business on social? Yeah, so go to my Instagram, Aaron underscore lead twenty four, and Click link in the bio, come book a call with us and come look at what it's like, or go to wealthoutsidewallstreet.com and and book a call with us. man, it's awesome. We're here to change lives and wake people up. Wall Street does not work. Let's go. Hit the WoW Factor. So, guys, thanks for listening to the Rookie on Fire podcast. Aaron, thank you for joining. it was an absolute just gem of a time to run through your your door-to-door journey and what you're doing now. And we'll see you guys soon. Peace. Love it. Thanks, Brad.